Butler's Mike Green wins a pair of national honors
April 3, 2008
San Antonio, Texas -- Butler University senior guard Mike Green has a busy schedule at the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four this weekend. His agenda now includes two award ceremonies, as the Bulldog veteran will take home two of the nation's most prestigious honors.
Green has been seleced to receive the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as well as the Chip Hilton Award, both presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of this weekend's festivities in San Antonio.
The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award is presented annually to the nation's outstanding senior player six feet and under who has excelled both athletically and academically. Green is the 40th player to win the award, first given to Purdue University's Billy Keller in 1969.
Green is one of only eight players in the nation to lead his team in scoring (14.6 points per game, seventh-best in the Horizon League), rebounding (eighth in the circuit at 6.5 per contest) and assists (a League-best 5.06 per outing). Green also was the only player to finish among the League's top ten performers in all three categories. In addition, he ranked sixth on the final League charts with 1.29 steals per game.
Green led the Bulldogs to a record-setting campaign in 2007-08 as Butler became the first school in Horizon League history to reach the 30-win plateau, finishing 30-4 overall after a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Butler, which also became the highest-ranked team in League history when it reached No. 8 in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today national polls in February, won the League's regular-season title with a 16-2 loop record. The Bulldogs added the Horizon League Championship crown with a 70-55 victory over Cleveland State University in the tournament championship game. Green was named the Championship's Most Valuable Player after matching his career-highs with 24 points and 13 rebounds in the title game.
The Philadelphia native scored 20 or more points six times this winter, including another 24-point, 13-rebound effort at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 12 and back-to-back 23-point games versus Virginia Tech and Texas Tech in November to lead Butler to the championship of the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout last November. He was the only unanimous selection to the First-Team All-Horizon League quintet.
The senior guard also set a Butler single-season record with 172 assists this season, closing his two-year Butler career with 996 points and 316 assists. He was the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year and a Second-Team All-League honoree in 2006-07 as Butler finished 29-7 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 for the second time in five years.
In the classroom, Green carries a 2.92 grade-point average as a sociology/criminology major. He has been named to the Butler Athletic Director's Honor Roll and is active in several community service projects, including leading a reading program at local elementry and middle schools in Indianapolis.
Green is the second Horizon League player to win the Naismith Award, joining University of Detroit Mercy alumnus Rashad Phillips (2001) in that group. Other previous winners include Wake Forest University's Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues (1987), UCLA's Tyus Edney (1995), and Stanford University's Brevin Knight (1997).
The Chip Hilton Award honors a Division I graduating senior who demonstrates character, leadership and talent similar to the qualities evident in the 24-book Chip Hilton Sports Series. The books, authored by Clair Bee, enjoyed their first popularity in the late 1940s through the mid-1960s and were updated and re-released by Randy and Cindy Farley to a new generation of readers in 1999. Those books have sold more than a million copies.
Wake Forest's Tim Duncan won the first Hilton Award in 1997, while other recipients include Duke University's Shane Battier (2001), University of Maryland standout Juan Dixon (2002), University of Connecticut alumnus Emeka Okafor (2004) and Texas A&M University product Acie Law IV (2007) as well as Butler's' Brandon Miller (2003), currently an assistant to Bulldog head coach Brad Stevens.
Green is in San Antonio to participate in the NABC College All-Star Game, which is scheduled for Friday evening at the Alamodome.
###
Previous winners of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award1969 - Billy Keller, Purdue 1970 - John Rinka, Kenyon1971 - Charlie Johnson, California1972 - Scott Martin, Oklahoma1973 - Robert Sherwin, Army1974 - Mike Robinson, Michigan State1975 - Monte Towe, North Carolina State1976 - Frank Alagia, St. John's1977 - Jeff Jonas, Utah1978 - Mike Schieb, Susquehanna1979 - Alton Byrd, Columbia1980 - Jim Sweeney, Boston College1981 - Terry Adolph, West Texas State1982 - Jack Moore, Nebraska1983 - Ray McCallum, Ball State1984 - Ricky Stokes, Virginia1985 - Bubba Jennings, Texas Tech1986 - Jim Les, Bradley1987 - Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues, Wake Forest1988 - Jerry Johnson, Florida Southern1989 - Tim Hardaway, Texas-El Paso1990 - Greg Harvey, St. John's1991 - Keith "Mister" Jennings, East Tennessee State1992 - Tony Bennett, Green Bay1993 - Sam Crawford, New Mexico State1994 - Greg Brown, New Mexico1995 - Tyus Edney, UCLA1996 - Eddie Benton, Vermont1997 - Brevin Knight, Stanford1998 - Earl Boykins, Eastern Michigan1999 - Shawnta Rogers, George Washington2000 - Scoonie Penn, Ohio State2001 - Rashad Phillips, Detroit2002 - Steve Logan, Cincinnati2003 - Jason Gardner, Arizona2004 - Jameer Nelson, St. Joseph's2005 - Nate Robinson, Washington2006 - Dee Brown, Illinois2007 - Tre Kelley, South Carolina2008 - Mike Green, Butler
Previous winners of the Chip Hilton Award1997 - Tim Duncan, Wake Forest1998 - Hassan Booker, Navy1999 - Tim Hill, Harvard2000 - Eduardo Najera, Oklahoma2001 - Shane Battier, Duke2002 - Juan Dixon, Maryland2003 - Brandon Miller, Butler2004 - Emeka Okafor, Connecticut2005 - Ronald Ross, Texas Tech2006 - Gerry McNamara, Syracuse2007 - Acie Law IV, Texas A&M2008 - Mike Green, Butler
